Entertainment technology giant Sony has been showing off its new hardware at the E3 video game convention in Los Angeles.

The company behind PlayStation has announced a new set-top box that will let gamers play their PlayStation games on a second TV by streaming them, without the need for a console to be plugged into the screen.

As well as the new set-top box, which will launch in the United States in the autumn, Sony also had their virtual reality headset Project Morpheus on show at the convention.

Although the device is still in prototype, PlayStation have been showing off the concept, and the games that are currently in development for it.

Simon Benson, director of WWS immersive technology group within Sony Europe and a long-serving member of the Morpheus development team, said: "Virtual reality is so immersive and allows you to to step over the borders of TV for the first time and enter that world.

"We found that everyone gets so excited about this technology the first time they try it. They just think it's so amazing. I'm proud to be able to show this here today. People can come along and try it and get a different experience. It's so different to conventional games."

The headset will do battle with other products like the Oculus Rift, which is also still in the prototype phase, and was purchased by Facebook earlier this year in a multibillion-dollar deal.

The annual E3 convention officially got under way on Tuesday, with the biggest names in the video game industry putting their latest titles on display for the first time. It follows a series of opening press conferences from the likes of Microsoft and Sony on Monday, where their latest developments were announced.

Microsoft unveiled the Halo Master Chief Collection, which will give Xbox owners all four existing games in the Halo series for the first time, ahead of a 5th game next year.

The convention runs until Thursday, with thousands coming through the doors of the Los Angeles Convention Centre to see what's coming up over the next year on their favourite consoles.